Previous Chapters: Condor / Sac / Comet / Slicer /
In this installment we'll be looking at Stay Frosty's favorite Frigate, the Tristan. Before Stay Frosty and my friend Joffy came along, I honestly never thought much about the Tristan. Mostly that was because drone skills were one of the last skill groups I trained. I was late to the drone party. And to effectively fly the Tristan, you will need some decent drone skills.
For a T1 Frigate the Tristan is extremely versatile. It can be fitted in a variety of ways for solo kiting, solo brawling, gang support and other roles. This versatility makes it difficult for the enemy to know exactly what you will be doing, the Tristan is full of surprises. This is its greatest strength. The other day I landed on a gate with a Stabber Fleet Issue so I tackled him and then called for help to kill him. Top damage!
Let's take a look at some recent Tristan kills:
Tristan Vs Executioner
Tristan Vs Hookbill
Tristan Vs Rifter
Tristan Vs Slicer
Tristan Vs Hookbill
Feel free to explore our killboard for even more examples, but those give you a good idea of the capabilities of the ship.
RJ's Baseline Tristan Fit
High Slots
2x Blasters (Ions or Neutrons depending on your skills, etc)
Mid Slots
Afterburner
Scram
Web
Low Slots
DC2
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane 2
Small Ancillary Armor Rep (loaded with Nanite!)
Rigs*
Rep Set - 2 Aux Nano Pumps & 1 Nanobot Accelerator give you maximum rep power.
Rep Set Alt - 1 Aux Nano, 1 Nanobot, and 1 Trimark
Aggro Set - 1 Aux Nano, 1 Anti and 1 Damage Rig
*Lots of flexibility here.
Drones - My usual set is 4 Hobs and 4 Warriors, but you can flavor these as well for whatever it is you'll be doing.
Know Your Ship
The Tristan's versatility is its strength and also its weakness. Like any T1 Frig it is fragile and needs to be flown with skill and knowledge of its abilities. The above baseline fit is only one example, but it is also a great place to start learning the ship and what it can and cannot do. The beauty of it is its ability to choose engagement ranges, the Tristan can brawl or pull range and let the drones do the work. I typically start most fights at the very edge of scram range until I know exactly what the bad guy is doing and how his ship is fitted. Then you can decide to move in or pull back.
The Tristan is not fast when fitted with an AB. (MWD Kiting Tristans can be very fast!) But you don't need speed since your circle of engagement is about 40k. One of my favorite things is watching someone try to get away while my cloud of drones continues to kill them. Just last week an Atron tried that and exploded about 100k from me. That was funny.
Targets
I feel very confident engaging any other T1 Frigate solo in a Tristan. Light missile boats can give you a lot of trouble if they have range, but if they have range you can always just leave. Other Tristans can also be tough sometimes, but I find that simply burning in tight and OH'ing everything almost always works.
T2 Frigates are tricky. Stay away from things that are super tanky unless you have back up, or they are big ships. The trick is getting close to long-range ships and staying away from brawlers, if you can manage the initial ranges on those you will win the fight - if you can't then things will end badly for you.
Reality
The Tristan is a cheap T1 Frigate perfect for being daring, challenging yourself and taking on targets that you might not normally engage. Like this Slicer. You win some, you lose some.
A few weeks ago I fitted up 10 of them and I have 4 left. They are a blast to fly, people will typically engage you (although I do have a lot of people running away from me!), and they are not hard to train into.
Try the Tristan. It is a ship that will often surprise you. Have fun!
Comments
-A. Alakmor